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'Les Miserables' will land back on Broadway stage next year

A scene from the musical "Les Miserables" is shown in this undated image release by The Publicity Office. The touring production of the famed story will come to Broadway in March 2014. (AP Photo/The Publicity Office/Catherine Ashmore)

The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, February 19, 2013 2:31PM EST

NEW YORK -- Someone is dreaming the dream: "Les Miserables" is coming back to Broadway.

Producer Cameron Mackintosh said Tuesday that the national tour of the epic musical about life in 19th-century France will make a stop on Broadway in March 2014 at a Shubert theatre.

The move comes on the heels of the Oscar-nominated big screen adaptation directed by Tom Hooper and starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway.

It will mark the third time the show has made it to Broadway. The original landed in 1987 and played 6,680 performances, ranking as the third-longest-running musical in Broadway history. A revival was mounted in 2006 but closed in 2008.

Mackintosh, who has also been involved in producing "The Phantom of the Opera," "Mary Poppins," "Miss Saigon" and "Cats," is betting that the appetite for "Les Miserables" will only be increased by the movie. History has shown he might be right: Film version of such shows as "Chicago" and "The Phantom of the Opera" haven't hurt their box offices on Broadway.

Victor Hugo's monumental 1862 novel about a decades-long manhunt, social inequality and redemption features the songs "I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own," "Do You Hear the People Sing?" and "One Day More." It has been seen by nearly 65 million people worldwide in 42 countries and in 22 languages.

Mackintosh's production has music by Claude-Michel Schonberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer from the original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel and additional material by James Fenton.

The national tour, which is currently in North Charleston, S.C., was launched in November 2010 and has already played 64 cities throughout North America, grossing more than $130 million.